Jersey Central Power & Light has requested permission from the state Board of Public Utilities to increase its base rate by $185 million to cover upgrade costs and damages from major storms.
If approved, a typical residential customer would see a 7.5% increase in their bill, equivalent to around $8.45 per month.
JCP&L had already received approval last month to slap its 1.1 million customers with a 4.8% monthly increase to account for the rising cost of electricity – that rate raise begins on June 1st – and this 7.5% hike would be on top of that.
While utilities do not earn profits from electricity costs, they do make a profit through the base rates they charge customers.
JCP&L says it has made almost $800 million in investments to its infrastructure in the past two years which will help keep the power on and reduce the amount of time it takes to get electricity restored when there is an outage.
